You know how it is: You go to all the trouble of getting to Iraq, you've got to stay awhile. President Obama says our latest attempt at molding a stable Iraqi government—begun yesterday with airstrikes on the cartoonishly violent Islamic State and parachuted victuals to Iraqis beset by them—could be "long term."

One reason the President pulled the trigger on airstrikes? One word, three syllables. You might have heard of it. BENGHAZI.